Splat |
L'Enfant (2006) |
"Viewers in Europe have swooned, it is said, at this movie’s painful inching toward redemption. Against that, I have to report a slow drip of disappointment." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009) |
"It’s a joyous experience to see an institution in full flower-- to see not dereliction and disorder but the many forms of striving and virtue." |
David Denby |
Splat |
Ladykillers (2004) |
"Everybody in and around this movie is trying too hard." |
Anthony Lane |
Splat |
Lakeview Terrace (2008) |
"It’s a shame that the later stages of Lakeview Terrace should overheat and spill into silliness." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
Last Days (2005) |
"Nor, on the other hand, is his film in the business of sanctification. It merely hints that some people, gifted or otherwise, may have had enough." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
The Last King of Scotland (2006) |
"Whitaker has done some surpassingly gentle and rueful work in the past, but for this role he has transformed himself -- he’s either sprawled in a stupor or alarmingly mobile, throwing his big body around the room as if it weighed nothing." |
David Denby |
Tomato |
The Last Station (2009) |
"It’s the most emotionally naked work of Mirren’s movie career; she gives poetic form to the madness and the violence of commonplace jealousy." |
David Denby |
Splat |
Laws of Attraction (2004) |
"Watch Hepburn and Tracy in Adam's Rib. It's very something." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
Leave Her to Heaven (1945) |
"As for the brother’s death, with Ellen looking on coolly in white robe and shades, it remains one of the most perturbing in the history of Hollywood." |
Anthony Lane |
Splat |
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) |
"The project lacks the variety of sensuous pleasures that a great movie has to provide." |
David Denby |
Splat |
The Libertine (2005) |
"The second half, especially, grows dour and maundering, and by the end the movie seems to flail in desperation, more like a work in progress than like a finished piece." |
Anthony Lane |
Splat |
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) |
"It is heartening to reflect that the best of Bill Murray may be yet to come." |
Anthony Lane |
Splat |
The Limits of Control (2009) |
"For all its cinematic references, [the movie] seems impatient with the need to tell a narrative at all, as if its secret wish were to be a photography exhibit, or an album of half-connected songs." |
Anthony Lane |
Splat |
Lions for Lambs (2007) |
"Redford is surely smart enough to realize, as the professor turns his ire on those who merely chatter while Rome burns, that his movie is itself no better, or more morally effective, than high-concept Hollywood fiddling." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
Little Children (2006) |
"The sexual awakening of a disappointed wife may seem like an old movie turn, but when has it been done with such candor?" |
David Denby |
Tomato |
Little Miss Sunshine (2006) |
"Little Miss Sunshine, a slight but charming movie, is a modest winner." |
David Denby |
Tomato |
The Lives of Others (2006) |
"If there is any justice, this year’s Academy Award for best foreign-language film will go to The Lives of Others, a movie about a world in which there is no justice." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
Lonely Hearts (2007) |
"The story of Fernandez and Beck may be grotesque comedy, but Todd Robinson tells it straight, without flinching from its piteousness, horror, or banality." |
David Denby |
Tomato |
Look at Me (2005) |
"Both an implicit protest against the blindness of power and an equally fervent protest against the acquiescence of men and women who are too weak or too compromised to stand up for themselves -- that is, most people." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) |
"As I watched this film, an eager victim of its boundless will to astound, I found my loyal memories of the book beginning to fade." |
Anthony Lane |
Tomato |
Lord of War (2005) |
"A raffishly ironic and insinuating movie -- and probably the most sheerly enjoyable film of the year so far." |
David Denby |
Tomato |
Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) |
"It’s a well-crafted, handsome period piece, and pleasant to watch, but the intensity of an obsessional style is beyond [director] Newell’s range." |
David Denby |
Splat |
The Lovely Bones (2009) |
"The Lovely Bones has been fashioned as a holiday family movie about murder and grief; it’s a thoroughly queasy experience." |
David Denby |
Splat |
Lower City (2006) |
"In the end, Lower City is never quite as energetic as it wants to be, touched by the strange, milky lethargy that steeps every waterfront film." |
Anthony Lane |
Splat |
Lucky # Slevin (2006) |
"I keep seeing films in which A-grade actors fill not just the top slots but some of the lesser roles, too, only to find themselves squashed by a script, or by a weight of contrivance, that would be lucky to bring home a C-plus." |
Anthony Lane |
Splat |
Lucky You (2007) |
"Most of Lucky You, starting with the title, is ordinary or outright awful. Moviemakers, it seems, cannot bluff their way to success." |
David Denby |
Splat |
Lust, Caution (2007) |
"By the time [Lee] gets to the lust, it is too late to throw caution to the winds." |
Anthony Lane |
RSS Feeds